Once upon a time I wanted to be a novelist. Now I can say that I am (an unpublished amateur novelist who has written exactly one novel, anyway). So here’s what I learned from winning NaNoWriMo:

• Writing an outline for at least the first half of your planned novel is a good idea — I didn’t outline for my prior NaNoWriMo attempts, and I didn’t win my prior attempts, but I did both this year.
• Caffeine really IS the ultimate writer’s friend.
• Procrastination is your worst enemy. If you can force yourself to actually buckle down and write, it comes along. Even if it’s not pretty, it’s wordcount.
• Don’t share your novel-in-progress with anyone — unless you’re entirely certain their reaction will be one that won’t bother you. Maybe not even then.
• Build up a fat cushion of wordcount in the first week (or several days), and then take an entire day off from writing (but only one day!). Repeat as needed.
• Don’t get too ambitious. “The first draft of anything is shitty.”–Ernest Hemingway
• Don’t be hard on yourself. If — ultimately! — it’s not fun, perhaps you should re-think why you’re putting yourself through it.

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was that I have no business writing fiction, at least not past the “very short story” length. After 30-some-odd years of believing that I could tell interesting stories, and if I just had enough self-discipline to write some of them down then maybe I could actually be a real writer (and maybe even get paid for it!), I finally accept that it’s a belief which is totally unfounded in reality. I know this because I forced myself to have the self-discipline to write down an interesting story, and guess what? It’s not. And it’s not the story’s fault, either.

But what surprises me is that realizing I’m actually bad at novel-writing doesn’t hurt as much as I worried that it might. It’s been much less distressing than most of the occasions when I’ve had an illusion shattered. Maybe it’s because I worked really hard to discover the truth…which is always better than illusion.

It’s been a really fun crazy-making but entertaining month. I’m very glad I did it — and possibly the best part was getting to enjoy my beloved Geoffrey’s really terrific novel!